LEE, CROMWELL (d. 1601), compiler of an Italian dictionary, was younger son of Sir Anthony Lee or Lea of Burston and of Quarendon, Buckinghamshire, and brother of Sir Henry Lee [q. v.] He matriculated at St. John's College, Oxford, probably in 1572, but took no decree, and afterwards spent some years travelling in Italy. Later in life he settled in Oxford, and there compiled an Italian-English dictionary, which he completed as far as the word 'tralignato.' A manuscript copy is now in St. John's College Library. He died in 1601, in the parish of Holywell St. Cross. He married in 1575 Mary, daughter of Sir John Hareourt, and widow of Richard Taverner. Henry Lee of Craig Castle, co. Tipperary, who purchased in 1678 land at Barna in the same county, is said to have been his grandson. Henry Lee's descendants are still settled at Barna.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. i. 312; Lipscomb's Hist, of Buckinghamshire, ii. 402; Lysons's Magna Brit i. 500; St. Johns Coll. Reg.; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. i. 310, 379, 399.]
LEE, EDWARD (1482?–1544), archbishop of York, son of Richard Lee, esq., of Lee Magna, Kent, who was the son of Sir Richard Lee, knt., lord mayor of London in 1461 and 1470, was born in Kent in or about 1482, and was elected fellow of St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1500. Having graduated B.A., he was incorporated at Cambridge early in 1503, removing from Oxford, it is supposed, on account of some plague. At Cambridge he proceeded M.A. in 1504, being ordained deacon in that year, with title to the church of Wells, Norfolk. In 1512 he was collated to a prebend at Lincoln, and had his grace for degree of B.D., but was not admitted until 1515, in which year he was chosen proctor in convocation. He seems to have given some attention to biblical study, and in 1517 Erasmus wrote to him explaining that he had not been able to make use of certain annotations which Lee had written. In 1519 Lee was a prominent opponent of Erasmus. More, who said that he had loved Lee from boyhood, regretted the dispute. Erasmus declared that Lee was a young man desirous of fame, and that he spread about reports to his disadvantage. He asked Foxe (or Fox, Richard [q.v.] ) whether he could check him (Erasmi Epp. vi. 23); he further said that Lee circulated among religious houses an unfavourable criticism of his New Testament without having sent it to him, and he threatened Lee with punishment at the hands of German scholars. During 1520 the dispute was carried on with much bitterness on both sides. Erasmus said that Lee's chief supporter was Henry Standish, bishop of St. Asaph's. Lee put forth sundry attacks on Erasmus, who retaliated by the ‘Epistolæ aliquot Eruditorum Virorum,’ and sent an ‘Apologia’ to Henry VIII defending himself against Lee (ib. xii. 15, 20, xiv. 15, 16, xvii. 1). In 1523 the king sent Lee with Lord Morley and Sir William Hussey on an embassy to the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, to carry him the Garter, to commend his zeal against the Lutherans, and to excite him against the French king. Lee was the orator of the embassy. He was the king's almoner, and in the same year received the archdeaconry of Colchester. In 1525 he was sent with Sir Francis Pointz to Spain on an embassy to the emperor. During 1529 he was engaged in an embassy to the emperor in Spain, and in January 1530 was sent with the Earl of Wiltshire and John Stokesley, bishop-elect of London, to Clement VII and the emperor at Bologna, to endeavour to persuade them out of their opposition to the king's divorce. He returned to England in the spring. In 1529 he was made chancellor of the church of Salisbury, and in 1530 received a prebend at York, and a prebend of the royal chapel of St. Stephen's, Westminster, and was incorporated D.D. at Oxford, having received that degree at Bologna or elsewhere. Lee made himself useful to the king at home in the matter of the divorce, and on 1 June 1531 was one of a deputation which was sent to the queen to persuade her to forego her rights. He spoke with some freedom to the queen, who told him that what he said was untrue (Cal. State Papers, Hen. VIII, pt. v. No. 287). In September Henry wrote to the pope requesting authority for Lee's elevation to the archbishopric of York. On 13 Oct. Lee and others had an interview with Catharine, in which they urged her to withdraw her cause from Rome and submit to the decision of bishops and doctors (ib. No. 478). Clement granted a bull for Lee's elevation on the 30th; he was consecrated to the see of York on 10 Dec., and was enthroned by proxy on the 17th.
Lee's elevation involved him in much expense, and his affairs were rendered worse by the disgrace into which his predecessor, Wolsey, had fallen before his death. Writing from Cawood in December 1532, Lee thanks Cromwell for obtaining leave of absence for him from parliament on account of his ex-
